If Hagel were better fitted for metaphor, Zorro would be an awfully good one, certainly better than that overrated royalist stooge Robin Hood. With his Michael Curtiz pastels and his Merry Men, the former Earl of Locksley fought to restore to the throne Richard I, the bloodthirsty slaughterer of Saracens, who’d left England to corruption and destitution while he went haring off to the Middle East on some damned Crusade. A renegade aristocrat himself, Zorro fought only to free the peons from a tyrannical governor. Zorro wore black. Zorro always rode alone. ~Charles Pierce, Esquire

Overrated royalist stooge?  Is that any way to talk about a Saxon hero?  Anyway, Hagel is about as much like Zorro in his political career as Lieberman is the Lorax.  When has he ever fought to free peons from anybody?  He votes with the White House more frequently than anyone else in the Senate!

I am frankly getting tired of these puff-pieces in which pro-war, interventionist pols who simply quibble about details of how such wars are fought get this glowing, reverential treatment:

A rock-ribbed Reagan conservative, he’s become the voice of uncompromising dissent on this war.

Uncompromising dissent?  I’ve never heard it, I’ve never seen it.  He dissents over tactical arrangements and management, not over anything fundamental.  He sometimes states things bluntly when he disagrees with the administration, but the idea that he is this fiery opponent of the war who takes no guff and stands tall, etc., is a lot of nonsense.  The Vietnam veteran-turned-politician who actually does oppose the war and has been working, however blunderingly and confusedly, to achieve some sort of American withdrawal is Jack Murtha.  People on the left had their Murtha-praising moment, but now he is practically ignored, almost as if he were an embarrassment to them.  Where has Chuck Hagel been in all of this?  Oh, yes, he talks about selling shoes and Cambodia and even drops impeachment into his conversation, but when it comes time to do something he doesn’t do very much at all.  “Let’s have a debate!” he says. 

Curiously, Hagel has appeared first in GQ, and now he’s in Esquire.  Is Hagel going after the metrocon vote?